Sermon Audio

A crowd had gathered around Jesus, and I suppose many a sermon could begin that way. But, once again, a crowd had gathered. Among this crowd were deriders and those who sought to sully Jesus' reputation—Pharisees and their disciples, scribes and teachers of the law, perhaps some Sadducees. Never letting a situation go without some instruction—these are his people after all, the ones created through Him, the ones He was sent to—Jesus talks to the crowd assembled. He instructs, and some believe. To them that believe in Him He says, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Yet, there existed in this crowd still others who did not believe—Pharisees and their disciples, scribes and teachers of the law, perhaps some Sadducees—they've all been mentioned before. They chime in, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, 'You will be made free'?" Jesus explains that one who sins is a slave to sin, but if He, the Son, sets them free, they are truly free. He acknowledges that they are descendants of Abraham, yet seek to kill him; they do the work of their father, who is not Abraham. They stand firm, "Abraham is our father." Jesus responds:

If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.

Now, let's connect the dots here. Jesus just said, "You seek to kill Me...Abraham did not do this." This thing that Jesus said did not fall on deaf ears. His listeners did in fact hear Jesus compare them to Abraham and how they react to Jesus compared to how Abraham did. "You seek to kill Me, but Abraham never did." That's when things really go down hill. It's what prompted their retort, given in the form of an insult, with which our Gospel lesson this morning begins: "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" and following that,

[W]e know that You have a demon! Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and You say, "If anyone keeps My word he shall never taste death." Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself out to be?

That's why Jesus replies, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." This really threw those who sought derision for a loop. "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" You can almost hear them saying that in laughter: "Ha! You're crazy. You're not even 50, and now you're saying you were around way back when Abraham was alive. Thanks for that, Jesus; I needed a good laugh today!" Yet, as calm and mater-of-fact-ly as ever, Jesus replies, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

Then they took up stones to kill him. But, it was not yet His time, so He passed through them unharmed.

"[B]efore Abraham was, I AM." This is not something to be taken lightly. It wasn't a grammatical mistake by John. This isn't simply a Greek idiom or a Hebrew idiom taken into Greek. Jesus plainly and truly said, "[B]efore Abraham was, I AM." He is speaking of Himself in the present tense while referring to a past event. Not only was He around to see Abraham, but before Abraham even walked the earth, He says of Himself, "I AM." That simple, two-word phrase carries a lot of weight.

Let's think back to when it was first used. Back at the beginning of Exodus, Moses is in the Midianite wilderness, having escaped there from Egypt to flee from Pharaoh's wrath for having killed an Egyptian. He's since married and tending to his father-in-law's flock when the Angel of the LORD—a phrase used often in the Old Testament to refer to an appearance of the Son of God before He took on human flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary, a pre-incarnate manifestation of the Second Person of the Trinity—appears to him from the midst of a burning bush that isn't consumed. Speaking from the flames in this bush, God tells Moses to return to Egypt and demand the release of the Hebrews. Moses inquires, however, "When I tell the people the God of our Fathers has sent me to deliver you, and they ask me for His name, what shall I tell them?" God answers, "I AM WHO I AM. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

Now, this passage from Exodus 3 in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, uses the same phrase as is found in the New Testament. When God says, "I AM," He says "Ego eimi." That's the same phrase Jesus uses in John 8. It's a little redundant, and for good reason. The word "Ego" is not necessary; it is enough to say "eimi" for that alone means "I am." Adding "Ego" makes it emphatic: "I AM," thereby meaning to draw parallels, in its New Testament use, to God's use in Exodus 3, where the phrase is used in Greek to give it the extra meaning intended by what is said in the Hebrew.

It is in the Hebrew where this interesting parallel is made. When God says "I AM" in Hebrew, He says, "e'hiyeh," a word which looks and sounds much like the name by which God reveals Himself in the Old Testament: "YHWH." It is a name, which at its core, means "I exist"; as if to say that God, who is called YHWH, is the real god, that there is no god besides Him—"I am, and no one else is." It is a name, interestingly enough, which the Jews refused to say, opting instead to say "Adonai" (meaning Lord) whenever they encounter God's name, a practice retained to this day.

So, what does this all mean in regard to what Jesus said?

First of all, by using the emphatic "Ego eimi," Jesus was, in fact, identifying Himself as God. This is further solidified in how He used the phrase, claiming His existence before the birth of Abraham (and, in fact, before creation).

Second, in a round-about way, Jesus had the chutzpah to speak the very name of God. Oh, certainly, there is a proper time for an ordinary man to use the Hebrew "e'hiyeh", but the context in which Jesus says "Ego eimi" and the seemingly poor grammar used when He said it—why didn't He say, "I was"?—was akin to Him saying YHWH.

In the ears of the deriders in the crowd that day, this was blasphemous. Jesus, a man in their sight, was claiming to be God. Jesus had been telling them of the God the Father, who is in heaven. Yet, He also said, "I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me," then He also claims to be God. This is an affront to their logic which believes (rightly so) that God is one, and since God is in heaven and Jesus is not, He cannot be God. Furthermore, how could a man be God? Therefore, they pick up stones to pelt the blasphemer to death.

So, what we have before us is the Biblical truth of the Trinity. God is one in three. God the Father is most certainly in heaven, as Jesus explains before our text. The Father sent Him from above, Jesus states. However, God the Son stands right before them. Together with the Holy Spirit, these three are one God. They are not three gods but one, "one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity," as we confessed earlier today in the Athanasian Creed.

That's about the best we can say to understand it, too. "We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity." God has three persons: the uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, almighty Father, the uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, almighty Son, and the uncreated incomprehensible, eternal, almighty Spirit. Yet, there are not three uncreateds, incomprehensibles, eternals, and almighties, but one. The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Spirit is Lord, yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord! The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, yet they are not three Gods, but one God.

The Athanasian Creed attempts to put words to the fact that Scripture plainly teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God with the fact that Scripture also plainly declares that God is one. Gladly, this third creed also states that God is incomprehensible. We cannot begin to comprehend the Trinity, and that's alright. It's not given to us to understand that God is one in three, but that we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. "He, therefore, that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity." The Scriptures declare this to be true, and so we believe it, we take God at His Word, whether we understand it or not: God says it, so it is true!

Furthermore, it could be a good thing not to understand it. There is a danger in trying to make sense of the Trinity. Trying to apply faulty logic and fallen reason to something incomprehensible inevitably leads to errors.

One such error is a teaching known as modalism. Modalism teaches that God is one—there is only one God—but that He works as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit at different times; sometimes one, sometimes another. At one point, He'll put on His Father hat, so to speak, and operate in Father mode, and at another, His Son hat, and operate in Son mode, and at another, His Spirit hat, and operate in Spirit mode. But, since God is one, He cannot wear more than one hat at a time, to use the same illustration. Yet, we know from Scripture that this is false, as, for instance, the Father was present at His Son's Baptism to speak as the Spirit descended upon the Son in the form of a dove—Modalism teaches that there can't be separate "modes" present at the same time.

Another error is a teaching spoken clearly against by the Athanasian Creed: Tritheism. This one acknowledges the three persons, but claims that they are all individual gods, independent from each other. This would be the polar opposite of Modalism. It is refuted, not only by the Athanasian Creed, but also by the beautiful passage that begins St. John's Gospel as well as Jesus saying "I and My Father are One" in John 10:30, among many other places in Scripture.

But, it could be a good thing for us to struggle with understanding it too. There is a danger in refusing to grasp what we cannot understand. Now, I don't want to encourage applying faulty logic and fallen reason, but I speak of a refusal to acknowledge that there is a great mystery in the Trinity to the point of ignoring it altogether. Far too often, if there is something we find difficult to understand or simply cannot comprehend it outright, we'll ignore it altogether.

The Trinity is one such mystery. Our feeble minds can have a terrible time wrapping themselves around the mystery of the Trinity that we can be easily tempted to throw up our hands and declare, "Whatever." It is as if to say of the Trinity that it is not an important doctrine of the faith. It's an easy cop-out for a wayward people that do not like to struggle, either physically, emotionally, or in thought. It's an attitude of indifference that is extremely dangerous to one's salvation.

However, God's Word declares the doctrine of the Trinity to be true. Therefore, for one who believes what the Word of God says, the mystery of the Trinity is an important doctrine. There is no room for indifference with regard to the Trinity for one who keeps God's Word—who guards, watches, cherishes, and clings to it, as we learned last week—or abides in it, as Jesus says of His true disciples earlier in John 8. God's Word declares this to be true—the doctrine of the Trinity is true—and so one who keeps God's Word believes it and cherishes it. God declares who He is in His Holy Word—He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit...one God—therefore one who keeps God's Word believes it and cherishes it. "He therefore, that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity."

Otherwise, if one dismisses the Trinity as so incomprehensible it is unworthy of thought or care, they they dismiss what God says of Himself. To them, God's identity is unimportant. This leaves the door open to myriad interpretations about who God is (and none of them can be true) and myriad creations of who they want God to be (and none of them will be true). These believe in a false god who cannot save. To paraphrase: He, therefore, that will be saved must not thus think of the Trinity.

It is enough to acknowledge that we cannot understand the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity, yet wholeheartedly take God at His Word for therein He declares it to be true. This is the essence of faith. It is belief in one God in three Persons. It is faith that clings to this truth: God the Father created you and has given and continues to give you all that you need to support this body and life; God the Son has redeemed you as He took on flesh, was born of the Virgin Mary, and died on the cross to forgive your sins; God the Spirit sanctifies you and daily brings you to the Word wherein you find repentance and the forgiveness of sins and brings you into the presence of God and His means by which He gives you repentance and forgiveness of sins. It is God—one God—who is at work to give you all that you have and need for your care and salvation in each of His three Persons.

There is no need to reduce God to something understandable and weak or completely do away with what cannot be comprehended. On the contrary, it is well and good to rejoice in a God who is greater than we are and greater than we can understand, who is strong enough to save, and who has given faith in Him and His Word to believe "one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity."

He has given you faith, faith which receives these words of Good News and gives them to you: you are forgiven for all of your sins.